How to enter piano music

Hi, still finding my way around these forums so sorry if this is explained somewhere else. I am not a piano player, my brain can only cope with one note at a time :grinning: but I thought just copying something into Dorico would be easy enough. I’m also brand new to Dorico having downloaded the SE version last week and bought the Elements version today. I’ve tried various searches but can’t seem to find the answer. I assume there must be a simple solution as it’s nothing particularly unusual.
I’m trying to recreate this
Screenshot 2023-01-30 at 18.01.48
I’ve tried entering the long notes first and then the top line afterwards, and then the top line first and then the lower bits second, but I keep ending up with an awful mess like this!
Screenshot 2023-01-30 at 18.00.52
What am I doing wrong? How do I stop the semibreves turning into multiple notes all tied to together?

All you need to do is put the longer notes in a new voice:

  • Click the first bar and Ctrl-click on the top F to deselect it
  • Type ShiftV to create a new down-stem voice and move the selected notes into it

Thereafter, during note entry, notice which voice your writing to (by the tiny quarter note in the lower left corner of the caret area). See Inputting notes into multiple voices in the User Guide for more details. And let us know any more help you may need.

Hello Simon,
you would need to use Voices, the top line of notes, one voice, the others (a chord) in another voice.

You should find the links here useful to get you started:

like the First steps and the link to the blog:

Thanks Mark, I’ve managed to do that at least, easy when you know how. I’m sure I will soon come across much more difficult ones so thanks for the link to the correct section of the help files.

Thanks for the links, I’ve sorted that bar now but I’m sure I will need to refer back to those help topics soon!